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We had left the curtains open again and awoke just before the sunrise. The sky was an amazing red colour and we watched it change shades as the sun came up. It actually rose quite fast and we took loads of pictures with the clouds, sea and islands giving a great backdrop. We watched it in total for about 45 minutes until the sun had totally risen. The city was now stirring as the traffic started up and some people jogged on the beach. We went to sleep however as we still had a long day ahead of us.
We awoke again just in time for breakfast, went down and had a long leisurely meal. We then came back to the room where we chilled for a while before packing up and going down to reception to check out. We had our hand gliding experience today and we waited in the lobby for our pickup.
When it finally came we got into the car and were driven to the base of the mountain we would jump from. It was a bit cloudy today but we were told the conditions were good. We signed our waivers and were then taken by another car to the top of the mountain by our instructors. On the way they gave us a leaflet to read which basically just said run, as if you don't have enough speed the glider won't take off. Shivani was feeling nervous at this point but I surprisingly wasn't.
When we reached the takeoff area we saw somebody else takeoff. There was a ramp that sloped down the mountain and you had to run a few metres and then launch off the edge. It looked scary but there were plenty of people doing it and the instructors seemed very relaxed. We were then put into our gear and both had a practice run up. The instructors said it was fine and we were now ready to jump. Our gliders had been assembled and we were ready to go. I was surprised how fast it went and felt a little uneasy.
Shivani had to go first and after being strapped in, she was given a bit more instruction before lining up and jumping. She got off okay and then it was my turn. The instructor then strapped me in and asked me if I was ready. I was nervous now but ready to go. He told me to run and I sprinted as fast as I could and when we got to the edge we happily took off. The was an initial rush but after that it just felt like we were floating. I was relaxed and looked around as we slowly drifted down. The view was pretty nice and it was quite a good experience although I have to say there wasn't much of a rush and I had preferred the sky dive.
The flight didn't last long and we were soon over the beach where we would land. The instructor told me what to do and the landing was quite smooth although I stepped on one of the cords which I think hurt the instructor. I was met on the beach by Shivani who had just landed and was much happier now. We swapped experiences before watching back the video and looking at the photos. We negotiated a price for these before buying them. We had to wait for our CDs to be burnt so got some drinks.
After we checked the CDs we decided to head to Leblon mall where we would try and find the rest of the gifts. Our driver dropped us there and we walked round a few shops, luckily finding dad a present, before deciding the mall was too posh to get any other gifts. We went to a coffee place in the mall where they had wifi and checked our mail and sent a few messages, while Shivani had a coffee and I had a milkshake.
We ended up taking quite a while and it was already late afternoon. We decided we should head back to Copacabana, where we could look for souvenirs and get something to eat. So we took a taxi to the Copacabana palace hotel and went to the street behind it where all the shops were. We stumbled across a tourist shop where we found some coffee for Umang before we walked back towards our hotel. We were still looking for some gifts for the boys but couldn't find anything appropriate. We stopped in a few cheapy shops but couldn't find anything Rio or Brazil based that would be good.
So we gave up and went to an Italian restaurant that was next to our hotel. We got a table outside and ordered some food and wine. I got some shrimp spaghetti and shivani ravioli, both were excellent along with the wine. We enjoyed our last meal and couldn't believe it was over, we were sad but also excited to go home and see everyone. We phoned mum to arrange our pickup before we headed to the hotel to get ready.
We got our luggage from the porter and then got changed and organised our bags. We then got a taxi and set off for the airport. We left at 8.30pm as we wanted to get there early for our flight at midnight, so we could look round the shops. There was loads of traffic however and it took over an hour to get there. When we arrived there was a big line at check in, it took ages for us to clear it, only to find big lines at the security and the passport control. By the time we got through all the queues, it was already 11.30pm. It didn't matter however as there was only one shop to go to. It was a standard duty free shop and after looking around a bit we decided to spend the last of our Reals on some baby havianas for Aria and Niaya. We then went to our gate where the flight was boarding. There was another long queue before we finally boarded the plane and took our seats.
Boarding had taken a little long and we had missed our slot and had to wait 20 mins before we took off. After we were in the air, we watched a movie and were given our dinner. We had some more red wine to help us sleep and after the dinner was collected they turned out the lights and we tried to get some sleep. In a few more hours we would be back home!!
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